Hot and Cold: Opposites Attract
Steppenwolf stood outside of the town, looking out at the path of destruction that lay before him. Piles of bricks lay wasted across the ground, admitting their defeat in the battle of man versus beast. Broken pipes lie spurting their content into deep ravines caused by the scrapping of giant claws through the dirt in a territory battle of esurient beasts. The wyverns were really going at it, displaying their power with little regard to the buildings and scenery around them. Mountains of ice cut through roofs and roadways, their crystalline structures glistening against the flames that danced in the air; each element hungry for anything that could fuel their wrath and bring about an end to their master's fued. "It's a good thing we evacuated the town." He had beaten wyverns before, as a matter of fact he just had for the previous challenge, but now he needed to wait. His partner would be here soon. Then beside him a portal opened up, creating a window to a scene that lay within the town before them. Ebisu stepped out of the portal to stand beside the wolf, coughing a bit as he closed the portal behind him. "Looks like everyone managed to make it out alive, but these wyverns seem a bit hard to take on. It's a bit odd to see two separate breeds come together in a territorial battle like this, but I guess it is mating season soon, so the males are a bit more aggressive than usual. But man, do they have to be so big..." Ebisu says as he rubs his hand on the back of his head, marveling at the site of the two dragon-like beasts locked in battle a couple hundred feet away from them. With a huff, Ebisu turns to his guildmate, "Well we really shouldn't waste time here, but I don't think its really best to go in blind either. You have Heat Magic right? So taking on either of these wyvern probably wont be much of a challenge for you, but there sheer size is a pretty big issue. We don't want to damage the town any more than necessary. So I have an idea." "What if I were to open up a portal to take these monsters to a clearing away from the town. It'll take a good deal of time to prep a portal big enough for two giant wvyerns, and I may only be able to get them a mile or so away. But I would need to get in really close and not have a laps in my ethernano manipulation. So what I am saying is that I would really need your help in keeping the fire off of me...literally." He said with a slight chuckle. "Once we get them away from the town, I think we can come up with a better plan to take them down. What do you think?" Ebisu asked, eager to hear what his partner had to say. They haven't really worked together before, but Ebisu was confident that Steppenwolf was a skilled fighter and they would be more than capable enough to subdue the beasts together. The Blitz Wolf didn't turn to his partner as he spoke to him. "That sounds like an effective manner to utilize our abilities. I'll try to make me their primary target as well until you get the portal ready, but I'll try not to stray to far from you in case they decide to attack the stationary target. But just in case..." Steppenwolf placed his hand upon the Devil Slayer. Ebisu's body suddenly became shrouded in a quick light as his body became more shiny. "I've hardened your body to withstand extra pressure and damage. While it won't defend against the temperature from the ice or fire, you're ability to withstand the power of their blows for some time. But if you take too much damage the armor will dissipate, so still make sure to dodge if you have to. Now let's go." The wolf got down onto all fours, prepared to make a sprint towards the village with Ebisu. The duo took off, each remaining in close proximity to one another, as speed was one of the things they both excelled at. Winding through the battle torn streets, avoiding fallen wires and fires with each turn, they find themselves face to face with the two beasts who managed to make a small clearing in the town from their constant thrashing and fighting. "Alright Wolfy, I'm counting on you." Ebisu says, as an idea he got on the run over was being put into action. "Don't call me Wolfy." said Steppenwolf as they split up. Scanning around the area Ebisu spots another fallen power line and runs over to it, making sure to stay out of the way of the wyvern's view. Picking up one of the power lines he gleefully bites onto it, taking in the electrical energy that courses through it with the perks of his Thunder Devil Slayer Magic. With a sudden increase in power Ebisu would be able to create the mass amount of magic needed to bring about his portals and transport the wyvern. As he starts to mold his magic in his hands, channeling a great amount of magical pressure, Ebisu watched on as he waiting for the right moment to release his portal and send the wyvern outside of the town. As Ebisu prepared the portal, Steppenwolf caught their attention. At blinding speed, Steppenwolf drilled the ice wyvern in the gut with Amarog Blitz, sending him reeling backwards. Afterwards, he ricocheted off of it and into the fire wyvern, so fast it didn't have a chance to react. Steppenwolf deactivated the technique and jumped off from the wyvern. They both turned towards him, obviously enraged. "Hello." They immediately unleashed their breath attacks upon him. Steppenwolf didn't even flinch. The ice melted before it made contact and the heat was immediately absorbed into his body. However, the steam cloud that was created made it much easier for Steppenwolf to sneak around. Several of his Mirages had already been created, moving around the battlefield and attacking the wyverns from multiple angles. The real one, invisible to the naked eye, moved next to Ebisu. "How much longer until that portal's ready?" Ebisu turns to his friend, a bit confused at to how one of his techniques worked, but none the less impressed at how effective it was. "Just a few more seconds. Think you can get your clones to direct them towards the portals? It's a bit hard to control something so big. I'll put them just between those buildings over at 2 o'clock. So follow through shortly, and then we can really let go and whoop these wyverns into shape." Ebisu said with a smirk as he sticks his hands out forward, his Teleportation Portal took shape, Ebisu envisioning the large field that lay on the outskirts of the town. Taking in a deep breath, Ebisu let out a loud scream that would have given no doubt that he was a thunderous slayer. "Alright you overgrown lizards! You want a real fight, let's go!" Steppenwolf's clones immediately began funneling the wyverns towards the portals. Some ran straight towards the portal, others were pestering them with blasts of heat. It wasn't much longer before they were only a few feet away from the portal. The real Steppenwolf appeared between the two wyverns, blasting each in the side with a powerful burst of heat. They flew into the portals, being teleported to Ebisu's destination. "Now without the worry of property damage, let us subdue them." Before running through the portal, Ebisu shrunk it down to prevent the wyvern from coming back, before he adjusted the exit of the portal to be above the fire wyvern before jumping through and activating a quick spell. Coating he elbow in a large surge of lightning, Ebisu takes the momentum from falling to increase the power of his Thunder Devil's Elbow Strike before making contact with the wyvern in an explosion of lightning before he pushed off and landed on the ground next to Steppenwolf. The wyvern squealed as it shook off the paralysis from the lightning strike, while Ebisu pulled out his Binbogami sword and gave Steppenwolf a quick glance. "Alright, it's a bit too crazy to explain now, but I'm going to try and shut down the magic of these wyverns. That way it's easier to capture them; because I wouldn't want to seriously harm these guys. Once I get a strike on both wyverns, I am going to focus on the fire wyvern, you take the ice. That cool?" Steppenwolf nodded to his partner. “Let’s go,” said Steppenwolf as he jumped towards the ice wyvern. The wyvern prepared an ice breath from its mouth. “'Hunt Breath!'” He called as he fired a beam of heat from his mouth in return. The blast made contact with the wyvern’s ice, right before as it left it’s mouth. The heat suddenly hitting the cold created a massive steam explosion. The explosion sent the wyvern staggering backwards, dazed and with its vision obscured. “Go for it now Ebisu!” "With pleasure." Ebisu said as he activated his Thunder Surge, giving himself a much needed speed boost as he used his Static Detection to navigate the dense fog created from the collision of his partners attacks. Luckily for him, Ebisu merely only needed to make a small cut on the legs of each of the beasts to bring about the mechanism that would shut down their magic after having dealt a large enough blow to overwhelm their magic. Activating his enumeration eyes, Ebisu can see that the magic power of the two creatures are fairly equal, so Ebisu would have to deal a greater initial blow to be able to shut them down faster to protect himself and his partner. Sprinting forward with his blade held out he used his Surge to coat the blade in his Thunder Devil's Sabre as he makes quick cuts along the feet of the two wyvern as they are engaged in battle with one another. With his speed Ebisu was able to dodge the retaliation kicks from both beasts as he transferred over nearly twice the starting MP amount that he would normally give to someone. Big targets are easy to hit I guess. But we still have some time before they shut down magic wise... Ebisu thought to himself as he put some distance between himself and the wyvern, just as the fog was clearing up. "Alright bro, you still have about 4 and a half minutes before the ice wyvern is out of magic, so play it safe. I'll finish up the fire one's magic as quick as I can. But don't worry, I got your back. Just holler if you need cover and I'll do the same. Now let's knock these babies out, then we can tie them up and call for back up from the knights!" Ebisu yelled across the scorched field to his partner, keeping his eyes out for any attack from the wyverns between them. “Understood!” Steppenwolf called back. Steppenwolf jumped up towards the ice wyvern’s chin, uppercutting it and causing it to stagger backwards. “Now that I have your attention, this shouldn’t be much more difficult.” The ice wyvern roared at the Blitz Wolf. He stood still, arms crossed. The ice wyvern breathed ice on him. Steppenwolf’s Heat Magic emanated from his body, forming a shield that melted the ice. Steam enveloped his body, but it soon cleared. The wyvern seemed more angry than anything. It attempted to stomp on him. Steppenwolf’s body became shiny. The wyvern stomped him, but quickly recoiled in pain. “Do you need any help over there Ebisu?” He called. Ebisu was doing his best to weave in and out of the wyverns flame attacks, creating a Thunder Devil's Shield to compliment his knightly choice in weaponry with his lightning sword. He made small cuts along the wyvern's legs as he circled it, keeping an eye out for Steppenwolf as he ran. "I think I am all goo--oof!" Ebisu said as he had taken his eyes off the wyvern only momentarily to glance at the shiny wolf, turning back to see a green tail come whipping towards him and making contact with his shield. The force was a bit too much for Ebisu to handle, as his body went skidding across the grass a few feet, the protective Hardening Magic enchantment Steppenwolf gave him protecting him from any harm. I see why Master said we couldn't do this alone, they pack a real punch! Ebisu thought as he got himself up and saw that the fire wyvern was preparing another breath attack. Luckily for Eibsu the last couple cuts had activated the special effect of his sword, shutting down the magic of the beast, the wyvern only producing a low screech instead of flames. "I think I am going to need your help in wrapping this up, any ideas?" He questioned, running forward once more to keep the wyvern busy and away from his partner. Steppenwolf jumped up to the ice wyvern's face, punching and kicking it several times in its maw. The wyvern went for another breath attack, but suddenly found itself unable to call upon its magic. He brought his fist down upon the top of the wyvern's mouth, followed by a blast of heat to send its head slamming into he ground. "Ebisu! They may not be able to use magic, but there still large hulking beasts. Perhaps a coordinated attack will prove most effective." "Alright man, let's give it a shot." Ebisu said as he stuck out his hand forward. "If you can make more of those mirages or something, you can surround my lightning arrows and we can really pack a punch together. I'll have to tame the current so they don't overwhelm the mirages, but if we aim just right we should be able to stun them for a bit. I'll let you take the reigns on this." He said as lightning currents begin to form at his fingertips forming the shape of arrows, splitting from his hands and hovering out in front of the feet of Steppenwolf to let him take control of his lightning. Steppenwolf crouched down again, his Mirages activating. "Wulf Pack!" he called, with an equal number of clones appearing as there were lightning arrows. They ran towards the arrows as Ebisu fired them, absorbing them into their being. Their red auras were suddenly replaced with a cackling lightning. They flew towards the two wyverns. They swiped their tails and claws at the clones, but upon contact they exploded in a blast of electricity and pure heat. Recoiling from the pain, the clones continued on, hitting the beasts in the torso and legs. Electricity cackled around the wyverns, signaling that they had been paralyzed from the shock. "This combination proved even more effective than I had thought. Now let's capitalize on this opportunity." Ebisu sheaths his sword to give himself free hands to pull out wire from his gloves to begin his modified version of Arachnid Bulwark, the largely weaved net spanning taller than the wyvern before him. Casting his hands forward, the net fell upon the wyvern, Ebisu weaving the thick metallic thread around it to fully encase the beast before sending currents of electricity to paralyze the wyvern as long as he could. "I'll keep this one down as long as I can, so I hope your aim is good enough to knock them both together, then I can net them and we can finish this!" Heat emanated from Steppenwolf's limbs as he delivered even more blows to the Draconic beast. "Lupus Blow!" he called, sending it off balance. "And for the finishing blow!" A sphere of heat formed between Steppen's hands, quickly growing in size. "O-Ba-Ho-She!" His most powerful attack hit the wyvern in the side. It wailed in pain as it flew at a breakneck pace into the fire wyvern. The two collided together with immense force, the sound of their scales resounding through the still air, as the concussive force causes them to fade out from consciousness. "Now Ebisu!" Ebisu swung his hands around to lengthen the wires and encase the second wyvern in a separate net, just in case they were to wake up and begin fighting again. Anchoring the nets to the ground, Ebisu seemed a bit sad to have to do such brash things to the wyvern, but knew that some time he must put his emotions aside to look out for the well being of the townspeople. He checked once again to see if the wyvern were conscious, very impressed with the power of Steppenwolf's last attack, as there was no real signs of anger stirring from the sleeping wyvern. Turning to Steppenwolf he let out a small, "That's pretty impressive, but we should probably make sure the knights are on their way. Then we should probably go and make sure all the fires are out in the town. I wonder if Theodore and Alice will come help us out with that part?" "I can handle the fire and ice leftover in the town myself," said Steppenwolf. "You make sure the wyverns are secure and await the arrival of the Rune Knights. Contact me if anything goes wrong and I'll be over immediately. If I could get a portal back to the town, it would be most appreciated." The Devil Slayer obliged, with the Blitz Wolf moving through the portal. He looked at the devastation the two beasts had inflicted upon the area. "Looks like the beasts already did quite a number on this place. Well time to get started" Steppenwolf created his Barreira do Lobo around the town. Through careful regulation of the dome, he was able to melt the ice while simultaneously absorb the flames into it. "That Ebisu, if I have to fight him during this trial, might prove to be a difficult opponent."